Charlotte's Web - Review

Charlotte's Web

By: EB White

Expected Publication: first published October 15th 1952

260 pages

Genre: Classic, Children's Fiction, Fantasy

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Goodreads description--Now available for the first time as an ebook! Illustrations in this ebook appear in vibrant full color on a full-color device and in rich black-and-white on all other devices.

This beloved book by E. B. White, author of Stuart Little and The Trumpet of the Swan, is a classic of children's literature that is "just about perfect."

Some Pig. Humble. Radiant. These are the words in Charlotte's web, high up in Zuckerman's barn. Charlotte's spiderweb tells of her feelings for a little pig named Wilbur, who simply wants a friend. They also express the love of a girl named Fern, who saved Wilbur's life when he was born the runt of his litter.

E. B. White's Newbery Honor Book is a tender novel of friendship, family, and adventure that will continue to be enjoyed by generations to come. It contains beautiful, classic illustrations by Garth Williams, the acclaimed illustrator of E. B. White's Stuart Little and Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series, among many other books.

So I watched the 1973 movie version of Charlotte's Web as a child. I thought Wilber was annoying back then, but the movie's overall story was worth putting up with him. I never read this book as a child, but I knew I wanted to read it to my children. And I'm so glad that I did. This was my children's first experience with a story that didn't have a completely happy ending. They haven't dealt with much death, and I'm thankful for that, but I want them prepared for it at the same time, if that makes any sense whatsoever. We all know that experiencing something as a child and re-experiencing it as an adult usually produces a different thought process. And that certainly happened to me.

If Wilber annoyed me as a child, boy, did I struggle with him as an adult. He's even whinier than I remember. Either that's the difference between the book and the movie, or it's my childhood memory versus what I just read. Even though the mysterious messages on the web were about Wilber, I always thought that Charlotte was the extraordinary one. I could never understand why the adults in the movie were more interested in the pig than in the spider writing messages on her web. I suppose the book tries to deflect this by saying that spiders can't possibly read or write so it would have to be a supernatural thing that the messages appear on the web. Almost as if the spider didn't have anything to do with the messages.

As an adult, I see this in an entirely different way. Of course, the entirety of the story is about friendship, about giving your all to someone else, about loving and caring about someone else more than yourself. But what I took away from it as an adult is how Charlotte was perfectly content with not receiving recognition for her actions. She was truly only concerned about Wilber's well-being and happiness. She didn't always sugar-coat things for him exactly as a truly good friend should be honest. At times, Charlotte mothered Wilber. She was behind the scenes working to lift him up. And she used the last of her energy to be there with him. Boy, I tell you this book got me a little emotional as an adult much more than as a child.

Charlotte's Web is a classic for a reason. I love books that can make a child's imagination grow and expand while also providing wonderful life lessons in the process. Ultimately, I'm sure that I took more away from this book than the kids did. Charlotte's Web gets 4.5 Stars. Have you read Charlotte's Web? What did you think? Let me know!